Currently Seattle funds parks through a levy system.
Personally I hate levies because they make any sort of long term planning impossible and tend, rather like prop 1, to accumulate different issues to get enough votes. The current levy means the owner of a $450,000 home pays about $85 for the parks.
Under the he district proposal that property owner would pay $189 annually. Moreover, the District could raise its levy up to $338 for the same house!.
Still, I will vote for the District because I believe that levies are a wasteful way of spending public money. Mayor Murry says we have a $267 million parks maintenance backlog.
The argument is exactly the argument makes Prop 1 so difficult. Paying for car tabs so other can use public transport is a small but reasonable reach for most people. Paying for maintenance of county roads is a bit harder sell for those of us who live in the largely urban parts of King County, Similarly, under the levy system, new parks are a lot easier to sell than maintaining what we have.
Still, wouldn’t it make more sense to just get rid of the Eyman rules and raise taxes t pay what we need to keep the city going?